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1975 - A Vintage Mint In Box Mego STAR TREK Transporter, Hot Darn!

As we continue our week of 1975 themed articles, we take a look at the first range of Star Trek action figures, released 40 years ago by Mego...

For a show that had been cancelled six years earlier, Star Trek had never been more popular. As Trek continued to find new fans in syndication and around the globe in overseas sales, 1975 also saw a prime time special (titled The Star Trek Dream) looking into the phenomena of the series; the final new episodes of The Animated Series aired; work began on a proposed new live action continuation, which would ultimately become The Motion Picture; but if you were a certain age, arguably the most exciting moment came when the very first range of Star Trek action figures were released...

Mego Toys had a history of producing licensed action figures, and for the previous three years had done very well with a range of comic-book figures of popular DC and Marvel characters, but their new collection for the 1975 Holiday Season would see them venture where no toy company had gone before. The figures themselves were eight inches tall, fully articulated with cloth replica uniforms and miniature accessories, and most of them were quite good likenesses of the show's characters. The first wave released consisted of five figures, all complete with belt, phaser and communicator or tricorder; Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Mr. Scott (Scottie), Dr. McCoy (Bones), and a Klingon. Later, Lt. Uhura was added to the set...

Further waves of releases would see several other action figures join the collection, including amongst them a Romulan, the Gorn, and bizarrely a Neptunian - a lizard-like aquatic alien with scales and webbed wings which never actually appeared in Star Trek!

But of course, you're going to need a USS Enterprise to go along with your new action figures, so...

The giant 24" long USS Enterprise Action Playset consisted of a mock-up of the Enterprise bridge with Captain's Chair, Navigational Console, two "Crew Seat" stools and a "spinning" Transporter, which also doubled-up as storage case for figures.

In the UK the Transporter Room was sold separately, under license by Palitoy, and allowed you to actually make your action figure disappear, as if they had actually transported down to an alien planet! It worked like this...

Can you imagine how excited any child would be to receive this for Christmas back in 1975? Possibly only half as excited as Sheldon Cooper was in 2012!

The Transporter Unit was such a popular toy, and perceived to be such an ingenious idea, that it was modified for the following years collection of Doctor Who releases...

...because that's exactly how the TARDIS works, right?

Mego would go on to produce many more Star Trek action figures and toys, including Communicators, Tricorders and Phasers, all of them worth a premium now in mint condition, but arguably none of them as fun and exciting as that first wave. Nowadays if you want to get a taste of that 1975 "real transporter action" then it'll set you back a premium - one in mint condition just closed on eBay at $305! Of course "once you open the box, it loses its value", but could you resist playing with it?...

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